Marc Webb Teases 'The Amazing Spider-Man 4' May Be an Ensemble

When Sony extended The Amazing Spider-Man franchise through 2018 and a fourth film, even before the sequel is properly finished, it changed what we thought we knew about Marc Webb's plans. All clues point to the Sinister Six factoring in somehow, and with a plethora of villains filling up the roster in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, there will be no shortage of characters for Webb to utilize. But as Webb continues to chat up the franchise, he also seems to be figuring out how a fourth movie can keep things fresh. As we saw with Sam Raimi's trilogy, the well tends to run dry by movie three, and it sounds like Webb's plan is to make 'Spider-Man 4' about more than just Peter Parker.

While talking to Crave Online, Webb seemed to tease that Spider-Man may not be the sole focus when the fourth movie comes around....

Webb: "Well, I think this was conceived of as a trilogy so there was a defined architecture to the story we were telling and we had sort of a rough outline of what was going to happen. I think [for] the fourth movie, what we’ve discovered is there are so many ancillary characters, that have enormous, cinematic potential that there may be other ways to exploit those characters, in a way that is exciting and fun and worthwhile. It might not just be a Spider-Man movie."

He went on to add...

Webb: "You know, what was fun about the comics is that there’s an entire sort of encyclopedia of characters and stories and histories and nuances and idiosyncrasies and off-shoots. I think that that is something that seems to be really successful and has a lot of potential so it’s sort of, as yet, undefined, but intentionally so."

Is Webb saying that 'Spider-Man 4' will be an ensemble? That's probably stretching things a little bit, but what it sounds like is Spidey may be forced to team up with one of his rivals to stop an even greater threat. While there are no shortage of characters Webb could thrust into the spotlight, the one that keeps coming to mind for me is Venom. We already know that Sony wants to make a Venom solo film, even targeting Josh Trank (Chronicle) as the director, and the character has been one of Spidey's most fearsome foes and a hero who has fought by his side.

While Electro (Jamie Foxx) is the sequel's primary villain, Webb has also introduced Paul Giamatti as Rhino, Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn, Chris Cooper as Norman Osborn, and Felicity Jones as another Spidey nemesis. Most of these characters will take on greater importance in future films, so it wouldn't be a total surprise if Venom were introduced in some small way, set aside to have a great impact later.

Whatever the case, we'll find out more when The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opens on May 2nd 2014.